Tag: creativity

A happy leader

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Giving makes you happier than gaining and taking from others. That’s probably why becoming the parents who take care of their children makes themselves happier people.

To create is to lead. It’s to start something new, go down a new path for the first time, where nobody else has set foot on. (The Practice, Seth Godin)

That’s a scenario where being a leader doesn’t require having followers.

Therefore, creating something that’s your own and sharing what you made to the world will make you a fulfilled, and happy person who leads her own life.

Can you think of what you want to do exactly to achieve this? Something worth thinking about.

But be mindful: there’s only “want to”, no “ought to”.

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Creative juices not flowing? No time to create? Try doing this first

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Not having enough time and not having the right idea are the two big roadblocks for the creatives.

As someone working in the creative fields, we expect ideas coming and hitting us in the head. The working process is like water flowing from the faucet. 

“Just do it.” They say. 

But nobody tells us how. Like it’s all going to happen by some magical power. No intention of yourself. No decision to be made.

“It’s not in my hand,” the artist says, “God put it in my head and He holds my hand.”

It’s a nice picture. But it’s also just not how most of the creators and artists work.

We think we don’t need time solely designated for creative work. Because when it’s time, the process is going to carry out by itself.

We think we don’t need to make decisions to prioritise. Because of course the creative process has the priority — when its the time for it.

But if we, as the creators, don’t intentionally make the decision to prioritise the work, we won’t be able to have the time we need to produce, to deliver the work.

To prioritise means intentionally to do something first, to give it more attention and time.

It’s a decision to be made.

Making such decisions is actively taking responsibility in our creative lives. Even if we are the receiver of Godly creations of arts, this is the only thing that we shouldn’t stop doing.

Prioritise so that you have the time for the space so that ideas can come to you as they will.

What hinders your creativity the most?

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Since I call myself a writer, I’m ashamed to say that my most prolific time of writing is when I was in school.

We had two writing classes per week. Every class was 90 minutes long. We got a writing prompt at the beginning of the class, and we spent the rest of the time conceptualizing and composing. 

When I was in college, I changed my writing routine to every Friday afternoon for two hours. My reason to only have two hours per week was that I had other classes to focus on – my college major was not Creative Writing. So two hours of writing was all that I deserved. 

It’s been three years since I graduated with my M.A. I had been struggling with writing all the time. Much more than before. 

I didn’t call myself a writer. Not when I was not published. Not when I didn’t have a writing schedule that could make me feel my “flow of inspiration” and “water spring of productivity”.

Now I do see myself as a writer. Because I write regularly anywhere online, and I have an audience.

Someone reads my story and likes it. That is good enough for me to keep writing.

Writing is creating, and self-caring for me. The creative aspect of it sometimes serves the opposite purpose of self-caring.

To be completely honest, it stresses me out.

It stresses me out because it’s “supposed” to be in some way. Like the girls are supposed to be obedient and the boys must be tough. 

Creativity starts personal and private. What’s personal and private is subjective. What’s subjective is never limited to being in some “supposed-to-be” way.

It’s that simple.

So yeah, I started conceptualizing this post by making the following list:

What does not hinder your creativity:

  • gadgets
  • big chunk of time
  • endless resources
  • huge pool/endless information

What actually hinder your creativity:

  • perfectionism
  • impatience
  • inflexibility/stubbornness
  • lack of confidence

But I’m just going to let all of this go for now.

Because:

Despite it’s true, that we don’t need gadgets, a big chunk of time, much information to be creative, and it’s true that we need to work on our perfectionism, impatience, stubbornness, and lack of confidence, the only way to be creative and keep being creative is by simply doing it.

Doing it without considering the word that carries tons of weight — “be creative”.

That word can make things really difficult if you put that on your shoulder.

“I’m a creator so I need to be creative and I have to keep being creative…”

No. Just create. And create some more. 

Find your time. Enjoy your time to create and work on your craft.

Find your audience who appreciate your voice.

That’s enough. Do your work, and have fun.

So my conclusion is this: what hinders my creativity the most is the burden of the word “creativity” entails.